Detroit Symphony Orchestra musical director Leonard Slatkin rehearses with his orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City in May 2013. / Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Music Writer

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has been on a hot streak recently, performing at Carnegie Hall and balancing its budget for the first time in six years.

But news that the musicians ratified a new 3-year contract today that includes modest annual wage increases of 2% a year provides the strongest evidence yet of just how much the culture has changed at Orchestra Hall since a six-month strike in 2010-11 nearly destroyed the institution.

The deal, which will raise minimum salaries to nearly $88,000 in year three, comes a full eight months before the current contract expires and with none of the public posturing and partisan rancor accompanying the 2010 meltdown.

That chapter ended with musicians bitterly accepting pay cuts of 23% and the DSO still mired in deficits and debt. But both sides said the new contract was negotiated in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust that has flowered since the strike.

Principal trombonist Ken Thompkins, a member of the joint negotiating committee, credited Phillip Fisher, board chairman since December 2012, with setting a collaborative tone from the outset. “We all initially sat down with Phillip and talked about our shared values and what we wanted to see as the outcome of the whole process.”

“The core values were honesty and respect and transparency, and the commonly held belief among everyone at the table was that we wanted the institution to come out the process stronger than we entered it. Everyone had in mind the need to move forward.”

Fisher, who has made a philosophy of “one DSO” the signature of his young tenure, praised musicians, board members and management. He said that any cultural shift within an institution is the work of many, not one. Not everyone agrees on every issue, and not all raw feelings have healed, but a contract agreement eight months early suggests that strike-era resentment is fading.

In an unusual twist, neither Fisher nor President and CEO Anne Parsons, who became a lightning rod for musician ire during the strike, were involved directly in negotiations, although they were active in formulating and evaluating proposals. “We decided that we wanted to do everything in our power to make this look nothing like the past,” said Fisher.

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In fact, only one member of the joint negotiating committee, whose eight members included musicians, senior staff and a vice chair of the board, were part of the negotiations three years ago.

Yearly base pay will rise 6% over the life of the deal, from $82,880 to $87,960. Musicians will also be able to make an additional $5,200 or more annually for optional outreach work — an unusual contract wrinkle introduced three years ago and retained in the new deal. Many players make more than the contract minimum and some principal players make considerably more.

“One of the key priorities is that we want to have a healthy, vibrant musical ensemble playing great repertoire with great conductors so we can attract and retain talent — while maintaining fiscal responsibility,” said Thompkins. “This contract helps us do that.”

In several instances, key provisions of the contract remain unchanged:

■ The size of the orchestra is still 87 (including two librarians).

■ Season length remains 36 weeks, plus four weeks paid vacation.

■ Electronic media terms remain in place governing the DSO’s free weekly webcasts, which has expanded the orchestra’s reach around the country and overseas.

■ Contractual pension terms stay the same, though a side agreement allows for a joint committee of musicians and management to study issues surrounding long-term funding requirements and volatility of the DSO pension plans.

On health care, the musicians brought to the table a proposal that saved money over its previous plan. There are also provisions that if premiums rise a certain amount, the additional costs will be shared by players and management.

Also as part of the overall deal, the musicians agreed to donate four services (a rehearsal or performance) for high-profile fund-raising concerts. The total savings for those services is about $200,000.

The efficiency of the negotiations, which began in November, grew in part from the development of a 10-year financial and artistic blueprint shaped jointly by musicians, management and the board. Executive Vice President Paul Hogle said a true understanding of the financial realities allowed all parties to understand how any single decision might impact the whole. The musicians’ proposed savings on health care, for instance, allowed for larger pay raises.

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“The only parameters were that revenue needed to outpace expenses,” Hogle said.

The DSO’s new contract arrives as sweeping cultural changes and financial challenges continue to vex the orchestral world. Ironically, the deal comes just one day after the Minnesota Orchestra ended its epic 15-month lockout with salary cuts of 15% and musicians paying more of their health care costs. The length and rancor in Minnesota are widely seen as having set a new low for labor relations in American orchestras, a title that previously belonged to the DSO.

The latest round of contract negotiations unfolded in Detroit within a far less dire set of financial circumstances than three years ago. Back then, bankruptcy was a real possibility in the face of chronic annual deficits as high as $7 million and $54 million in debt on the Max M. Fisher Music Center.

Steep challenges remain, but a deal with lenders retired the real estate debt in 2012 and record increases in fund-raising and rising earned income led to a balanced budget in 2013 on expenses of $25.6 million.

DSO leaders said that a quick settlement to the contract will further reassure donors that the orchestra is on the right path — especially important as the DSO lays the groundwork for an endowment campaign designed to raise $125 million to $200 million over the next decade. Income from the endowment will lessen what is still considered an unsustainable burden on annual giving.